Shelby dabbles in citizenship rumor [UPDATED]

Another local resident asked [Alabama Senator Richard] Shelby if there was any truth to a rumor that appeared during the presidential campaign concerning Obama’s U.S. citizenship, or lack thereof.

“Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate,” Shelby said. “You have to be born in America to be president.”

I emailed Shelby's spokesman, Jonathan Graffeo, to ask if Shelby believes there's substance to this rumor, for which no supporting evidence has ever emerge, and which has been debunked repeatedly and in detail.

UPDATE: Graffeo calls to say that the Cullman Times report is a "distortion" and that Shelby mentioned that he hadn't seen the birth certificate only as a "throwaway line" while listing the qualifications for office and explaining that the issue had been examined at length and put to rest.

"He doesn't have any doubt" about Obama's citizenship and eligibility, Graffeo said.

UPDATE: I haven't been able to reach the Cullman Times to check for tape or transcript, but in the meantime, a fuller statement from Graffeo:

The Cullman Times article contains an incomplete account, and therefore a distortion, of Sen. Shelby's comments regarding President Obama's citizenship. At the town hall meeting in Cullman, Sen. Shelby laid out the Constitutional qualifications for the Presidency and said that, while he hasn't personally seen the President's birth certificate, he is confident that the matter has been thoroughly examined.